


Love Square... Wait!... What!?

by Valkyrie_Lenneth



Category: Ghost Tales
Genre: Complete, Facebook App Game, Gen, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-19 20:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3623514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valkyrie_Lenneth/pseuds/Valkyrie_Lenneth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My rules:</p><p>#1 Enjoy! That's what stories are for.</p><p>#2 You are entitled to not like my work, but there is a difference in being an a*s (i.e. "You suck!") and being analytic (i. e. "I didn't like X or Y... you could try X or Y for next time")</p><p>#3 No need for comments/feedback/encouraging words/miscellaneous unless you really feel inclined to post them.</p><p>#4 Rule #3 applies for kudos or other archive automated reports (favorite story, favorite author, etc)</p><p>#5 I'm not a steady writer, most often than not I'm not inspired to write a story... and even though I try not to leave work unfinished, things happen. Please be patient (I may not update until 10 years after the last update) and/or understanding (probably I'll never update).</p><p>And now, on with the story!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Look who's here for the festivities

**LOVE SQUARE... WAIT!... WHAT!? by Valkyrie Lenneth**

Anna and Jane were decorating the garden of the latter for the St. Patrick celebration. All residents of the Ghost Town were invited. Jane placed green tablecloths with gold coins patterns over the wooden tables. Anna, standing on a stool, placed garlands of green and gold flags on poles marking the refreshments area.

"Anna?", Jane's voice came from behind her.

"Yes, Jane", asked the girl.

"Could you go into the woods and look for clovers to make some table arrangements?", asked the brunette.

"Sure!", replied the redhead finally tying the garland she was holding on the pole to her right.

"Four-leaf clovers would do, please", Jane stated.

"Of cour... WHAT!?", Anna almost lost her balance on the stool when she heard the last sentence of her ghostly friend.

"Come on Anna!", pleaded Jane, "if anyone can get those four leaf-clovers, it's you".

"Jane, I'd like to help with that, but... we only have five hours left until the party starts, where would I get those clovers?", Anna said and gave her an apologetic smirk, "Maybe if I had more time...".

"Yes... I understand...", replied the other girl with downcast countenance, "it was silly of me to ask you this with such short notice".

The sadness in Jane's face made Anna's heart constrict with pain. She had done and completed more complicated and difficult feats since coming to Ghost Town... finding four-leaf clovers would be a piece of cake for sure!

Anna jumped off the stool and walked to the fence that bordered Jane's property.

"Where are you going?", Jane asked with concern in her voice. After all, she didn't want to lose the human girl friendship over some clovers.

"Those clovers will not collect themselves", Anna said, a triumphant look on her face and a confident tone in her voice, "I'll be back in a heartbeat". She briefly turned to look at her friend, saying goodbye with a smile and a mischievous wink.

**0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0**

Anna leaned against the trunk of a maple tree. It had taken half an hour to reach the forest that stretched on the edge of town ... and had sworn - almost - to fetch four-leaf clovers, searching intently for two straight hours. She was exhausted.

The redhead looked up at the sky from the comforting shade of the maple; the sun had advanced considerably in the sky. Anna calculated there were a couple of hours more before sunset... and then the San Patrick party at Jane's would start.

 _And no clovers yet_ , the girl thought bitterly. However, the noise in the foliage of a nearby bush distracted her from her thoughts. She instinctively took her right hand into the pocket of her lime green dress in which the magic wand rested. It had been given to her by his grandfather when she arrived at the Ghost Town for the very first time.

"Who's there?", she asked firmly. The branches and leaves of the bush moved insistently; whatever it was hidden behind it, was big.

 _Better safe than sorry_ , Anna thought as she took the wand from her pocket with a graceful flick of the wrist. She finished her movement by extending her arm towards the bush; from the wand came a spark of magic that found its way into the foliage.

A big, gray shadow jumped out from the bush with a painful howl.

"YOU!?", yelped the girl with a mixture of astonishment and annoyance in her voice. In front of her, fallen on his face, was the werewolf who had insisted that she accepted going on a date on Valentine's Day. 

In the end, she had escaped the appointment by using a dummy with her image as a replacement.

"Hi, Sweetheart!", the werewolf said, "as spunky as always, I see". The werewolf stood up and gave her a toothy grin; he dusted off his fur and gave pats on the side that the magic of the wand had scorched. Anna saw that the damage was not severe.

"What are you doing here?", asked the girl.

"Well, what else!", he answered, unfazed, "I came looking for you, sweetheart".

The redhead had begun to utter the first words of a sentence when a reddish-black blotch appeared from nowhere and carried her through the air... away from the wolf man.

When the commotion stopped - and the surroundings did, too -, Anna realized that she was in another clearing in the arms of Draco, the vampire who had also asked her out on Valentine... but with the secret intention of drinking her blood.

 _This day cannot get any worse_ , thought the girl and - while cradled in the vampire's arms - pressed the tip of the wand against the tip of his nose.

"You better not try to act smart", she said, frowning. "And put me down slowly", she added.

"As thou command, Princess" Draco said without worrying about the potential risk of a direct hit of magic on his face. Once she was on her feet, Anna slowly moved the wand from the vampire's face to his chest.

"I thought we had solved this incident way back on Valentine's Day", the redhead snorted, suspiciously. If memory served, she had banished Draco and the werewolf using a teleportation spell on both in that occasion.

  
"I wouldst cross the seas, wouldst climb the highest mountains, and wouldst soar the largest sky than let the distance separated me from thee, Princess", Draco declaimed poetically. Anna rolled her eyes and followed the gesture with a face-palm.

"Look, those poems probably work well with the vamp ladies but, for me..."; again, the redhead was interrupted. This time the smack of a whip echoed in the clearing and someone grabbed her by the waist. The girl turned around to see the new intruder swinging on a branch with the help of the whip; her weight on his shoulder.

 _Oh, no! He again!_ , moaned her mind when she saw who rescued her from Draco: none other than the Zorro-wannabe.

When they were high enough, the masked crusader jumped onto the next branch. He released his whip from the branch where it had coiled before, and started to run and jump between the branches of the dense foliage with a skill the redhead supposed he lacked - specially since he kept carrying her over his shoulder.

Anna pressed her right elbow on his back - she did not care if that bothered or hindered their escape - and, resignedly, rested her chin on the palm of her hand. Her left arm was shaking and swaying with the movements of her new captor. When it seemed they were far enough to be safe, Zorro brandished his whip again - coiling it on a branch a few feet under them - and swinging skillfully to land on the ground, safe and sound.

"Can you put me down now?", asked the redhead, contempt dripping from her voice. Zorro lowered her gently, setting her on the ground, and smiled from under the brim of his hat.

"It was fortunate that I was in the vicinity", he said and, rummaging under his cape, he pulled a red rose from it; handling it towards the girl. "For you", he added.

"Erhm... thanks... I think", replied Anna and, hesitantly, took the flower he offered, "Well... uhm... I better get going now".

"Wait...", Zorro said when she started to walk away, "I was wondering if..."

This time, it was Zorro's turn to leave the sentence unfinished; the werewolf had caught the collar of his white, silk shirt and held him suspended over his head.

"Stay away from my Sweetheart!", the werewolf said, growling fiercely and showing his sharp fangs. The werewolf's victory in his surprise attack was short lived: when he was about to throw Zorro against the trunk of a nearby tree, the bang of a shot and the cloud of smoke that spread from his shoulder around him made him loose his grip on his prey.

Anna turned in the direction of the shot and saw Draco, suspended on the air by flapping his reddish-black bat-like wings, gliding down slowly and elegantly.

"The following shall be silver, puppy", he said coldly when the tips of his shiny military boots touched the forest floor. His gun - a cavalry pistol of some sort - still pointed to the smoke cloud from which the sound of the werewolf's coughs were coming.

From the smoke cloud came a growl - angry and menacing -, and Draco brought his finger to the trigger... a whip slashing on his wrist caused him to drop the weapon. Zorro appeared a couple of feet to his right. Anna suspected that the masked man had taken advantage of the werewolf distraction with the smoke to escape from his grasp. Another blow from the whip and its tip coiled on the pistol and lifted it into the air; the weapon fell at his feet, away from the vampire.

"I think you're out of luck, soldadito", Zorro replied boastfully and greeted Draco touching the brim of his hat with his fingertips. "The señorita stays with me".

The werewolf was getting out of the smoke cloud - that was starting to dissipate, anyway -, and looked askance at his two opponents. Anna saw that the location of each guy was at the tips of a triangle - each separated by a distance of 9 feet -, and that she was out of it.

"It's my chance", thought the redhead looking at the deep woods and moving without turning her back on them as to not let them notice she was leaving. She was about to achieve her goal when the three in conflict threw themselves into the center of the imaginary triangle and got into a fight that raised more dust than Draco's smoke bullet.

"A commoner like thou can only settle with watching mine Princess from afar", Draco said as he pushed Zorro's face with his foot and tried to keep the werewolf's claws away from his own face by locking hands with him.

"You are out of your mind!", replied Zorro as he used his left hand to try to remove Draco's boot from his face while, with the other, pulled the werewolf's ear, "Anna would never fall for a circus freak like you ... nor an over-sized dog like this one!"

"Have you seen yourself in a mirror?", growled the offended werewolf, "you look so pathetic that you make a hobo look charming". The werewolf redirected one paw at his head in an attempt to remove Zorro's hand of his ear.

The fight came to a ridiculous standstill in which all they did was throw empty threats and insults to the others, twisting and writhing on the grass of the clearing. Anna - having a change of heart and staying to watch the scene to make sure things did not turn ugly - decided it was time to intervene.

"ENOUGH!!!", shouted the girl at the top of her lungs. The struggle ceased and the three turned in her general direction. Anna drilled each one of them with fuming eyes. "What are you? Five year old?!".

The three remained - in a heap on the ground - motionless and silent, surprised by the redhead's shout. Anna crossed her arms over her chest and gestured with her right hand for them to stand.

"Get up... _now_ ", said the girl and, although her tone was calm, it had a menacing undertone that was not lost to the three guys. They all scrambled to their feet and waited for the next order. Anna snorted, looked at the sky - realized that she had no time to continue her search for clovers thanks to Larry, Curly, and Joe standing in front of her -, and placed her hand on her forehead, worried.

The gesture was short lived as she looked up immediately and smiled to herself. The idea that had popped in her mind could not fail.


	2. Lets play a game.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story popped up in my head after attempting the Ghost Tale Quests "Mushroom Soup" and "May Forest".
> 
> The werewolf is the only one that doesn't seem to have a name (maybe I should call him "Wolf", very original... I know). "Zorro" is more an alias than a proper name, though.

"I propose something", said the girl softening her tone slightly and walking near the three motionless guys, "if you want to prove your worth, I have a challenge that may interest you; I don't expect you to agree to it without getting anything in return, of course..."

The redhead paused to let her words settle in the trio's minds. She studied their faces discreetly and knew she had got them interested.

"He who brings me more four-leaf clovers than the others", Anna said and smiled charmingly, "will spend the evening with me in the St. Patrick Feast at Jane's in Ghost Town that will take place today".

The enthusiasm of the group was palpable: the werewolf's ears moved like radars, looking from Anna to the deep woods like a hound waiting for his master to release the chain to go hunting for a juicy prey. Zorro smiled enigmatically under the brim of his hat, although he appeared calm, he opened and closed his fists spasmodically and shifted his body weight from one foot to the other waiting for the starting signal. Draco studied the profile of the girl with eyes that he expected showed suspicion and doubt; however, his wings betrayed him because - like the werewolf's ear - shivered erratically, albeit in a discreet way, waiting for the chance to go back to the sky as fast as he could.

"Now, to make sure there will be no quarreling among you", she said and looked at them sternly to emphasize, "everyone will go in a different direction". The guys nodded. Anna took a piece of paper and a pencil from her dress's pocket and wrote three different directions. In the end, the werewolf had the paper that said "West"; Zorro, "Northwest"; and Draco, "North".

 _So I will keep them as far away from town as possible_ , thought the girl calmly. 

"Very well", said the redhead looking at them, satisfied, " remember the rules: don't get in the way of the others, keep the course you were assigned, you only have an hour to collect Clovers. I only accept four-leaf clovers. The goal is at Jane's house; she will be the one to count the clovers and designate the winner... which will be lucky to accompany me in the St. Patrick Party. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads _no_. "Then... GO!!!", exclaimed Anna, throwing a spark from the magic wand that exploded like a firework over their heads. The three guys lunged forth in different directions and got out of sight.

"Sorry, Jane", Anna thought to herself,"I couldn't get shamrocks after all". The girl sighed, somewhat satisfied, and started the way back home.

**0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0**

Anna was laughing with Mario, Luigi, Natalie, and Claire when Jane came close to the group.

"Anna...", Jane said, placing her hand on the redhead's shoulder.

"Yes, Jane?", asked the girl, turning to look at her friend... her smile faltered momentarily.

Jane looked so apologetic, fiddling nervously with her fingers in front of her apron ... after her, stood Zorro, Draco, and the werewolf. The trio smiled and looked from Anna to the clover ornaments they held in their hands.

Mario and the others looked at them curiously. "Keep having fun", said the redhead to her friends and flashed a 'nothing's happening, I've got this' smile.

"Jane", Anna said, this time, to the auburn-haired girl, "why don't we offer drinks to our visitors... they must be thirsty!"

The female ghost nodded and the redhead led the trio to a nearby table. "Wait here", she said calmly, "I'll help Jane with your drinks ". The redhead walked to the refreshment table, followed by the guy's voices that agreed to wait.

"We had a plan, Jane! What happened?", asked Anna through gritted teeth as she placed four empty glasses in front of her friend.

Jane was toying with the cut glass pitcher's handle and looked, out of the corner of her eye, toward the three men sitting at the table. They watched eagerly around.

"I know! I know!", Jane moaned, plaintively, "but I couldn't do it, Anna! Just look at them! Not only they got the four-leaf clovers; they offered to help me finish the arrangements for the tables. The thought of spending some time with you led them to make a huge feat, 'sides...", said Jane, "the three brought the same quantity".

"All of them were four-leaf clovers?", asked Anna frowning, a shade of doubt darkened her eyes.

"All of them", Jane replied with a nod to confirm her response. The female ghost finished filling the last glass and the redhead placed it on a tray along with the others.

"Okay, okay", sighed the human girl reluctantly and lifted the tray, "I'll give them a pat on the back and will tell them they did a good job. Happy?". Jane smiled and looked her friend walk away to meet with the waiting guys.

**0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0**

The werewolf, Zorro, and Draco were re-introduced to the Ghost Town inhabitants. Anna was concerned that they weren't going to leave her alone for a moment - which happened only partially -, but the 3 guys did their best to integrate themselves in the celebratory atmosphere.

The werewolf was the winner of the 'Find the Pot of Gold' event... it paid off to have a sense of smell as sensitive as his.

Draco took part in the 'Eat Cob-cannon' event. The werewolf and Zorro misled him to participate telling him that the dish to be featured was an Irish specialty called 'Blood Pie'; in the end, the vampire forfeited since the Cob-cannon - prepared by Mario - had an excessive amount of garlic ... typical of Italian cuisine.

By the end of the evening , the guests made room for the Irish dance... but Zorro took the opportunity to take Anna's hand - distracted at the time -, and guide her into a piece of improvised flamenco. This didn't go unnoticed by Draco and the werewolf; the pair got engaged again in a nonsensical fight of threats with Zorro.

"Overall", said Anna's grandfather, as he watched his granddaughter trying to restore order among the trio from a few feet away, "I think the St. Patrick Feast was a success".

"I hope they can join us again on another holiday", seconded Jane at his side.

 

**THE END**


End file.
